OPA Annual Conference

The Oregon Poetry Association annual conference for 2025 will again be held on the Oregon coast at the Best West Agate Beach Inn.
We are still working out the conference discounted room rates. The call for conference workshops will be coming soon.

Conference Keynotes

We are pleased to announce that Christopher Diaz will be the opening keynote Saturday morning and the Oregon Poet Laureate, Ellen Waterston, will be delivering the closing keynote.

Christopher Diaz

Bio:

Christopher is a Chamoru writer, performer, and photographer from the island of Guam. He has been featured by NBC news, the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, Poets & Writers.org, and more. He is a two-time grand slam champion of Houston’s team, “Write About Now,” which ranked fifth in the nation in 2018, and he won first place at the 2023 Bigfoot Regional Poetry Slam festival with his PNW team.

He specializes in portrait and performing arts photography, and has previously taught poetry and coached performance with the non-profit, “Writers in the Schools.” His Instagram handle is “@lightbulbchris,” but he assures you he goes by Christopher. He is also a U.S. military veteran, and lives in Vancouver, Washington with his partner and two dogs. You can find him at  https://www.christopherdiazcreates.com/

Ellen Waterston

Bio

Award-winning poet and author Ellen Waterston has dedicated herself to writing and advocating for the literary arts in the high desert region of Oregon, all the while continuing to write poetry and nonfiction works that have evolved into essential reading about Oregon and the West. She has published four poetry and five literary nonfiction titles, including, most recently, We Could Die Doing This (2024) and Walking the High Desert (2020). She is the founder of the Writing Ranch and of the annual Waterston Desert Writing Prize. 2024 was a banner year for Waterston who, that year, received Soapstone’s Bread and Roses Award, Literary Arts’ Stewart H Holbrook Award, and was named the eleventh Poet Laureate of Oregon. She is currently completing a fifth collection of poetry. For more information visit https://www.writingranch.com/

 

Registration Fees and Dates

Early Bird  registration begins July 1st. and ends August 15th, when regular registration will continue.
Here are the registration fees.
Early Bird:
OPA Member $155
Non member $205
Student $65
Standard or regular:
OPA Member $180
Non Member $230
Student $65

Previous Guest Poets

OPA has a wonderful history of bringing in, from all parts of our state and all across the nation, poets whose words inspire us and whose workshops teach us. Many of our own members have also led workshops at conferences for free or very nominal fees. We have all been enriched by their contributions as well. Some of our previous guest poets include:

  • Kim Stafford
  • Emmett Wheatfall
  • Paisley Rekdal
  • Paulann Petersen
  • Cindy Williams Gutierrez
  • Heather McHugh
  • Matthew Dickman
  • Judith Montgomery
  • Laurel Blossom
  • Daniel Nathan Terry
  • Clem Starck
  • Charles Goodrich
  • Tess Gallagher
  • Paul Hunter
  • Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge
  • John C. Morrison
  • Jessica Mehta
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